This Day In US Naval History - February 1

Posted by Eric Haun February 1, 2016

USS Enterprise (CV-6) (Official U.S. Navy Photograph)

1800 - USS Constellation engages French frigate La Vengeance in a 5-hour battle during the Quasi War.

1902 - USS Plunger (SS-2), the lead ship of the Plunger-class submarine, launches. She is commissioned Sept. 19, 1903, at the Holland Company yard at New Suffolk, Long Island, N.Y. Ensign Chester W. Nimitz is the submarines final commander when Plunger is decommissioned Nov. 6, 1909 at the Charleston Navy Shipyard.

1942 - USS Enterprise (CV 6) and USS Yorktown (CV 5) make the first World War II air strike against the Japanese at their outposts in the Marshall Islands to protect the Trans-Pacific supply route to Australia.

1944 - Three US Navy submarines, Guardfish (SS 217), Hake (SS 256) and Seahorse (SS 304), attack Japanese convoys, sinking a destroyer, cargo ship and another vessel.

1944 - USS Guest (DD 472) and USS Hudson (DD 475) sink the Japanese submarine I-171 off the Bismarck Archipelago.

1945 - USS Jenkins (DD 447), USS OBannon (DD 450), USS Bell (DD 587) and destroyer escort Ulvert M. Moore (DE 442) sink the Japanese submarine RO 115, 125 miles southwest of Manila.

1955 - Task Force 43 is established to plan US Navy Antarctic operations called Operation Deep Freeze.

2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates and is lost with all astronauts due to a failure in the shuttle heat shield protective system on the leading edge of the left wing during its re-entry into the Earths atmosphere.

(Source: From Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)